Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Director Jack McManus told the January 27 Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Public Safety Committee meeting that according to the FBI's seven index crime statistics, Roosevelt Island is "the safest place in New York City"...

Roosevelt Landings Service Committee Chair Romano Reid organized a group of residents to attend the January 27 meeting and advise RIOC Public Safety Department Director McManus and Deputy Director Lynda Marmara about issues with young people smoking marijuana and loitering in the hallways, staircases and apartments.

Here's portion of the discussion.

One Roosevelt Landings resident went as far as asking if a common space could be set aside far away from residents' apartments for marijuana smoking so that it would not bother others (at the 3 minute 25 second mark). Director McManus replied that he saw that scenario on the HBO Series The WIRE, but could not condone similar tactics here on Roosevelt Island.

Another resident asked for security cameras to be placed in the hallways but Director McManus said that was up to the Roosevelt Landings building management, not RIOC, to implement.

During the meeting, Doryne Isely of Urban American's Roosevelt Landings management phoned in to the group offering to meet and discuss these issues.

Because Roosevelt Landings is the largest building on Roosevelt Island comprised of (9) buildings, there has been a history in Roosevelt Landings of quality of life violations. Some of which are children playing in the hallways, and people from other communities and buildings loitering in the halls at all times of the day and night. The violations have now extended into the smoking of various substances in public areas, sexual acts being performed in remote areas of the building,the starting of various fires in the AVAC's .

The residents and it's leadership have had enough!! As a direct result of these disruptions, the leadership of Roosevelt Landings residents brought our concerns to the Roosevelt Island Public Safety Committee on 1/27/2016. At this venue residents were able to express our discontent to Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department Director Jack McManus and Deputy Director Lynda Marmara.

As a follow-up to the 1/26 meeting, our group was also invited to meet with the management of Urban American the following week to further address these concerns.

During this February 3rd meeting with Urban American management there were several recommendations proposed by the buildings "Tenant Service board" as it relates to improving the safety & security within the building. As the buildings Chairman, I am devoted to working with residents & Management alike to bring about the necessary improvements to Roosevelt Landings.

RIOC Public Safety Department Director Jack McManus adds:

We look forward to continuing to work with the residents on this difficult issue. We have doubled,(and on some days and nights tripled), the commitment of officers patrolling Urban American buildings due to complaints of teenagers/young adults hanging out, making unreasonably noise, and smoking marijuana in the halls and stairwells of these buildings.

Personnel from the 114th Precinct are very visible in these buildings performing vertical patrols both jointly with PSD and independently as well. We have made at least three (3) arrests over the last two (2) weeks for trespassing and other public nuisance related violations. It remains illegal to smoke marijuana in public and we will continue to summons/arrest violators of this law.

Through our own observation and encounters, as well as that of the NYPD, the vast majority of young adults that we encounter, summons or arrest are Roosevelt Island residents. As we continue to address this issue, I am requesting that parents of resident teenagers/young adults discourage their children from hanging out in the hallways and staircases of any building on Roosevelt Island as it is presently the number one (1) complaint that we are receiving from Island residents over the last several months.

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Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.

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